Jack Butler Yeats

Hilary Pyle

Jack B. Yeats, son of a painter and brother of the poet, is undoubtedly the outstanding Irish painter of this century. His work is collected by all the major galleries of modern art, and is currently attracting very high prices. In 1970 Hilary Pyle published an excellent biography of Yeats, and since then she has been working on the complete catalogue of his works: a lavish oils catalogue came out in 1992. Yeats is unique among Irish artists in that he spent the first twelve years of his career working solely in watercolour, bringing the technique to a perfection comparable with Turner and Cezanne, prior to choosing oil as his medium. This watercolour catalogue includes over 700 examples of his work dating from 1897 to 1910, with further examples from earlier and later periods. For each entry there is technical data (comprising title of painting, measurements, signature if signed, dates and details of its being exhibited, etc.) with an explanatory paragraph where needed. There are numerous thumb-nail reproductions for identification, and sixteen pages of colour illustrations.

His Watercolours, Drawings, and Pastels

Jack B. Yeats

National Gallery of Ireland

Jack B. Yeats in the National Gallery of Ireland

T. G. Rosenthal

Jack B. Yeats is probably the greatest painter Ireland has ever produced, although he is often overshadowed somewhat by his more famous brother, the poet W. B. Yeats. First published to great acclaim in 1993, this is one of very few popular books on Yeat's work. With more than 100 colour plates and 175 black and white illustrations, it is an authoritative and glorious appreciation of Yeats's vast and varied output.

The Art of Jack B. Yeats

Jack B. Yeats was the son of portrait painter John Butler Yeats and younger brother of the poet William Butler Yeats. He spent his childhood in Sligo, which remained a permanent source of inspiration for his painting. He studied art in London and soon earned a high reputation for pen and ink drawings in magazines. In 1910, after a period in Devon, he settled in Dublin where he devoted himself to painting in oils. Yeats was closely connected to the literary personalities of his day; John Masefield and J. M. Synge became his close friends. In the 1930s and '40s he published novels and plays which won the admiration of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. His paintings have been exhibited in many major galleries, and continue to be exhibited thirty years after his death.

A Biography

Poet and mystic of the Irish cultural renaissance of the early 20th century, Susan Mitchell was a friend of Lily Yeats, Constance Markiewicz and Seamas O'Sullivan. Her name was linked in Dublin with that of painter and mystic, AE. Raised by her unionist ounts in Dublin, she rebelled against the privileged Protestant society in which she was reared, to become a journalist on Plunkett's far-sighted publications, The Irish Homestead and The Irish Statesman, at a time when Home Rule was imminent. Objective despite her Republican views, she lampooned contemporary politics and the literary world alike. Her satirical commentary provides essential reading for a background to the present situation in Northern Ireland.

Hilary Pyle

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